?cole Supérieure en Sciences Appliquées de Tlemcen (ESSAT) was founded in 2009, in the second-largest city in north-western Algeria. Tlemcen is renowned as the capital of Andalusian art in Algeria, and has been dubbed “the African Granada” and “the pearl of the Maghreb”.
Like other Algerian preparatory schools, ESSAT aims to provide its students with high-level training in scientific and technical disciplines, in order to prepare them for the entrance exams to major engineering schools.
Subjects on offer include mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, industrial sociology, general economics, technical drawing, English and French. Students are taught over two years, using a combination of theoretical lessons, tutorials and practical work.
At the end of the two years, students will sit an exam. Those who pass will go on to more specialise study for a further three years.
In 2016-17, ESSAT opened a three-year engineering and master’s course in electrical engineering. And, from 2017-18, two further specialisms were introduced: automation and industrial and engineering.